When Colin first suggested the idea of writing about ‘future classic’ albums of punk rock there was one album that came to mind for me before anything else. Of course it was The Menzingers and their third album, released in 2012 on Epitaph Records, On The Impossible Past. I’m sure I’m not the only punk rock fan to deem this album a classic, it is arguably the band’s most loved, most played album.
It has taken me a little while to actually pluck up the courage to write about On The Impossible Past – the Future Classic idea came about back in July. Aside from The Gaslight Anthem’s The ’59 Sound, which I was told I wasn’t allowed to write about because it was too old (2008) to fit into the criteria, On The Impossible Past is my favourite album of all time. Again, aside from The ’59 Sound, it is my most played album – on vinyl, on CD in the car, on my computer (iTunes and Spotify), sometimes I just sing the songs to myself having not heard them at all – ‘I will fuck this up…’. I put it on whenever I don’t know what else to listen to and am always pleased with myself for making that decision. I absolutely love this album and I’m going to struggle to express exactly why I do. So, I’m going to revert to answering the questions Colin proposed in his Future Classics: Not Like This by Iron Chic post, at least to get me started.
The first question is ‘Does it grab me on the first listen?’. I was finishing up my third year of university when my CD copy of On The Impossible Past arrived in the post. I was already a big fan of their first two albums and expected that album number three would be more of the same. I was wrong. This was something else. It grabbed me because it wasn’t quite like A Lesson In The Abuse Of Information Technology (at the time I thought OTIP couldn’t possibly beat their debut) and it wasn’t quite like Chamberlain Waits either. I don’t know why but I just connected with this one. The album became my soundtrack to finishing uni, to going back home, to getting a job, to moving out… I haven’t stopped listening to it on a regular basis for 5 years. And I’ve just answered the second question about coming back to the album time and time again as well.
Some of Colin’s other questions are ‘Do you take inspiration from the lyrics?’ and ‘Do you relate to them somehow?’. Well, I can’t relate to growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I can’t even relate to growing up in America. But that doesn’t mean that each and every song on On The Impossible Past doesn’t get me every time. There are definitely some lyrics that are sung louder and with more heart by a Menzingers live show crowd than others, such as the aforementioned ‘I will fuck this up, I fucking know it.’ from The Obituaries. The lines that open Good Things, and therefore the album in general, are another classic example – ‘I’ve been having a horrible time, Pulling myself together.’ Other notable and highly singalong-able lyrics from On The Impossible Past include: ‘Here’s to you, the same chords that I stole, From a song that I once heard’ (Burn After Writing), ‘So I'm marching up to your gates today, To throw my lonely soul away, ’Cause I don't need it, You can take it back’ (Gates), ‘Me and Casey, We used to get drunk before we did the dishes’ (Casey). There’s just something in lyrics about self-doubt, heartache and nostalgia that us punk kids can relate to.
I think that brings us nicely to ‘Does the album get the same reaction live as it does on record?’. And here’s where I get to throw in my ‘I saw On The Impossible Past played from start to finish at Fest 15 last year’ card. It was, well,words can’t describe how happy it made me but, before I go any further, I know you’re probably thinking ‘But they mostly play OTIP songs in their set lists anyway, what’s the big deal?’. While this is possibly a little bit true, they had never – and probably haven’t since – played Freedom Bridge, the album’s closing song, live before. So that was really quite special. It was also pretty amazing in general to hear each song flow into the next how it was designed to on the album but transferred into the live setting. The band know that On The Impossible Past is their most loved album and they probably also know that they will never be able to make another album that quite lives up to it – don’t get me wrong though, I love both Rented World and After The Party – and so those songs feature highly in any Menzingers live set, album show or otherwise. I’m excited just thinking about the times I’ve sung along at the top of my lungs to songs from On The Impossible Past live and I cannot wait to do so again.
It feels like I could start to wrap things up right about now, although I also feel like I could ramble on forever about how much I love this album without actually really saying why. So what I will say is there must be a reason why On The Impossible Past has a Metacritic score of 93 out of 100, why countless other Menzingers fans name it their favourite album by the band and why we sing along to these songs louder than all the rest. I love On The Impossible Past and I hope that I never stop coming back to it when I don’t know what else to listen to.
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